¶ 1Leave a comment on paragraph 10
During Ernest R. Groves’s tenure as NCFR President, membership increased, the deficit was liquidated, and dues were increased and, under Ernest Burgess’s editorship, the journal Living would receive a new name and thrust.

¶ 3Leave a comment on paragraph 30Ernest Rutherford Groves was born May 6, 1877 in Framingham, Massachusetts to Henry Hunt and Hannah Sweard Groves. He received his B.D. from Yale Divinity School in 1901 and his A.B. from Dartmouth College in 1903. Professor Groves later received honorary doctorate degrees from Florida Southern College in 1942 and from Boston University in 1946. Although Professor Groves served for a short time as a pastor in Maine, he soon began the teaching and research which would be his life’s work. Among the schools where he served as a faculty member were New Hampshire University, Dartmouth College, Boston University, Duke University, and the University of North Carolina. He served as Dean of the Liberal Arts College at New Hampshire University from 1914 to 1920. Professor Groves taught at the University of North Carolina from 1927 until the time of his death. He was also often a visiting lecturer at various schools.

¶ 4Leave a comment on paragraph 40
A sociologist, Professor Groves developed the first college credit course in preparation for marriage (at Boston University in 1922, and at the University of North Carolina in 1927). He wrote the first college text on the subject, Marriage, in 1933.

¶ 5Leave a comment on paragraph 50
A prolific author, Professor Groves wrote more than 20 books and nearly 200 articles and became one of the leading and most respected family life educators in this country. Professor Groves’s work appeared in the popular journals of the day (Look, Good Housekeeping, Parents Magazine) as well as the academic journals (Social Forces, Journal of Educational Sociology). He served on the editorial boards of many of these publications.

¶ 6Leave a comment on paragraph 60
Professor Groves was the first president of the North Carolina Mental Hygiene Society, serving from 1936 to 1938. He was president of the National Conference on Family Relations in 1941. From 1938 to 1940, Groves was chairman of the Committee on the Family for the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America. Throughout his career, Professor Groves was an active member in numerous national and state organizations for marriage, family life, and mental hygiene.

¶ 7Leave a comment on paragraph 70
Professor Groves began the successful annual conferences on the Conservation of Marriage and the Family, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Mrs. Groves had begun the conference at the North Carolina College for Negroes. They became affiliated in 1947. They eventually became known as the Groves Conference of Marriage and the Family, still in existence today.

¶ 8Leave a comment on paragraph 80
It will be apparent, when reviewing the correspondence in particular, that Professor Groves was well loved and most respected. He was a compassionate, thoughtful man who gave generously of his time and expertise. Professor Groves devoted a great deal of his time to counseling patients, in person and via the mail. His work was progressive for its time; his advice is most often still applicable today.

¶ 9Leave a comment on paragraph 90
Ernest Groves married Dorothy Doe, daughter of New Hampshire Chief Justice Charles Doe, in 1906. They had two daughters: Catherine Groves Peele, and Ernestine Groves O’Kane. Catherine also became a well-known educator and author and occasionally collaborated with her father and stepmother. Dorothy Doe Groves died in 1916. On February 25, 1919, Ernest married Gladys Hoagland. They also had two daughters: Ruth Elva Petrillo Groves, and Lois Mary Groves McGill.

¶ 12Leave a comment on paragraph 120
The role of the American family at the moment has no uncertainty. It must maintain with patience an unchanging courage, and with unstinted sacrifice continue as the basic source of the morale which alone can carry us through our present ordeal. No one in accord with the quality of American civilization would choose a family life responsive to our present emergency as a permanent domestic experience, but rather we are prepared to meet the social reconstruction and promise which will face us at the end of this unseasonable war. Speaking for myself, I look forward to a future family which will express the two characteristics that have been distinctive in the growth of our nation: an increasingly just relationship of men and women and an appreciation of the worth of individual integrity. I seek also a family life that will itself be supported by an advancing social maturity.

The 1980 Portland Conference was 12 days after Mt. St. Helen had erupted. There was lots of ash around all over, and I still have a bottle of that ash. That was the year we had an afternoon trip to near Mt. St. Helen’s planned, and still took the trip. On the way up the bus stopped at Crown Point which was typically one of the windiest spots around. The wind was so strong that it blew the name badges out of the plastic holders. It also blew Ruth Jewson, Helen Hartness, and me on top of each other (which was scary for us with Ruth, but she wasn’t hurt). The bus also stopped at Multnomah Falls which was stunning. That evening I played for Bert Adams to sing songs from some musicals. He did a magnificent job.

One of my first NCFR conferences was in Portland and I was still a doctoral student then, and a member of the Executive Committee of NCFR as the student rep. It was at that meeting that I was really thinking about my career and where I should go with it. I was a student in family sociology and my chair was Lee Axelson, then the President of NCFR. He wanted me to take a sociology position. But others suggested that my interests would be better served in Child and Family Development (then in Home Ec) where relationship issues would be easier to study. I did not know which way to go.

At that meeting we took a bus trip to the coast of Oregon for a “salmon bake” on the beach. I sat on the bus between Eleanor Luckey and Ruth Jewson. All the way over and back we talked about career directions and those two people who I respected so much listened to me, and gave me their counsel, experience, and wisdom. Eleanor noted that she had been trained in psychology but chose to go into child and family development since there were more peers there who could help her frame her ideas and help them mature. Ruth saw the emerging scholarship in CFD and the quality of research coming out. The result of that was my turning down sociology jobs and taking the CFD position at UNC-Greensboro, where John Scanzoni and others later joined me a a great department. And my first students there were Jay Mancini and Gary Bowen, who have become successful scholars in their own right.

So the memories of that NCFR in Portland so many years ago remind me of how important it is to continue to foster opportunities for young student scholars to meet with senior people who can give them other ideas, and perhaps bring perspectives that their own programs may not be able to offer. Keep mixing us all up, and recognize the key role you play in the stirring of the creative pots in this vital area of family research and practice.

In 1988-89, I was Association of Councils president-elect. In 1989-90, I was president. There was no vice president. Other officers were program chair, secretary/treasurer, and past president. Both the president elect and the president served on the NCFR Board.